Creative Inspiration

Hey y’all! Now that we’ve hunkered-down into the new house, I want to share how digital scrapbooking helps us decorate our walls. Because, we can agree that a sexy wall is a well-decorated wall. Enter ‘ze parlor …

Or ‘ze music room because of the piano beside the entrance and the guitar up against the window. I digress. Mounted directly above the piano I can play and across from the guitar I can’t play are two 24 x 36 inch gallery wrapped canvas prints printed courtesy of Shutterfly. Here they are side by side:

It’s a wide known fact that digital scrapbookers typically DON’T print their photos or pages. *Facepalm* I was guilty of it too. We have SUCH high-tech equipment but lack, at least some of us do, the follow through to get our pages printed and in the albums and/or print our best photos.

We’re into the design of the page not necessarily showing-off our creation. An online galley — yes! On Facebook and Instagram — you betcha! But on our walls — eh — maybe when I get some time. Again, I’m guilty of it too.

So, last year I scrolled through all of my photos and picked my two favorite all-time photos for each kiddo. Then, I opened each photo in Adobe® Photoshop® and converted them into black and white so the colors would not influence or takeaway from the color theme of the room.

Being on a budget, I didn’t want to order four individual prints. So, using Photoshop, I layered the photos 2-up on a 24×36 inch workspace making sure to leave about 1.5 inches on the four sides so there was enough material to wrap around the canvas’ wooden frame. That way, I could still get my four photos printed for the price of two!

Also, being on a budget, I made sure to have them printed during one of their MAJOR sales events. For example, right now, Shutterfly is hosting their Mother’s Day ‘Best Sale of the Season’ deal where home decor products (like printed canvas) is 40% off! Always print your large format stuffs during those great sales — you can find their special offers here.Please note: I am NOT a Shutterfly affiliate.

TIP: As I am a digital scrapbook teacher it’s important that you know to pick your best, IN FOCUS, large photos. I chose photos taken from my DSLR and not my iPhone. My sharpest images come from my heavy-duty camera. That’s a given.

But, you’ll also enlarge each photo quite a bit to fit large gallery-wrapped canvas. So choose your photos that have a high resolution file type — like a high resolution JPEG or RAW format. That way your photo will still look tack-sharp and in-focus when you enlarge your photo to fit 24×36 inch (or a variation of).

Gallery wrapped canvas print may seem like a lot of work, but it’s not. Probably 3 hours tops, which included searching for the photos, 2-uping them in Photoshop, navigating through Shutterfly, receiving the prints in the mail, and hanging them.

And in return, I’ll have a lifetime of simple, beautiful, professional-looking prints hanging on my walls. I love sitting in the parlor room, or even playing a ballad, and looking up at my kiddos smiling faces. It’s something worth remembering!

Calling all digital pocket scrapbookers. Looking for a twist and tug on your current system? Tiffany’s dreamed up something awesome that just might be perfect for your next page using her own pages as inspiration. Check out what she had to say …

“One thing I’ve learned in all my long scrapbooking years is that I’m NOT a daily documenter. The day to day happenings of our lives won’t make it in my scrapbook pages because I enjoy capturing random moments and unique pages. But, sadly, my event-related layouts go un-scrapbooked (like that Disney trip I took in 2009). Until now!

I’m always kinda geeked to debut a line of templates, but this set ranks high amongst the bunch. See, this new set was inspired by my template team. Last week during the release of Love’s Delight, one template — the crooked one — sparked such a heated debate over who would scrap with it first. We were so amused!

Then the lightbulb flickered over my head and inspiration sparked! Why not create a versatile arrangement of “Crooked” templates? Thus Wicked Crookeds were born:

This month, I’ve marked down one of my all-time favorite collections: The Slivers! I love them “janks” because of the nifty idea behind their creation. See there I was staring at a mess my daughter had created on our living room floor consisting of shreds and slivers of paper. Template idea born!

January leads to February — no way to stop it. Trust me, I’ve tried. With February right around the corner, my Featured Template Set of the Month sale ends soon! Both Heart of the Story Foundation pack and add-on Painted pack are 30% off from now until January 31, 2013 11:59 pm PST. Get it while the getting is good!

O summer! How doth tempt me with thine easy going ways. Tiffany’s “official” summer begins mid-month once the kids start summer vacation. But the warm weather beckons me to play outside, as it has all year. And occasionally, I run back to the office to create page templates like these …